My debut play Butterfly is to be staged by Phoenix Arts this summer (5 & 6 June), as part of the Hampshire theatre’s New Writing Programme. I’ve worked closely with the team there to develop this story, which has grown from an egg to a pupa – and is almost ready to emerge…
Based on the real-life story of Eleanor Glanville (1654–1709) – one of the UK’s first female entomologists – Butterfly reimagines her life in the present day. Declared ‘deprived of her senses’ for daring to pursue butterflies, Eleanor’s legacy was successfully challenged in court. We meet her on the brink of a discovery – the butterfly we now know as the Glanville fritillary, one of only two British butterflies to be named after the scientists who found them – amid a brewing crisis.